Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences
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Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Business and Policy Studies
Series Vol. 75 , 17 April 2024
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Investigating the Relationship Between Unemployment Rate and Alaska’s Unique Universal Basic Income
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Abstract
The distribution of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) has existed for over four decades. Similar to a universal basic income PFD entitles each Alaska resident to an equitable portion of an annual government allocation. This paper examines how Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend impacted Alaska’s unemployment rate before and during the pandemic. It also evaluates the merits of a universal basic income before and during a pandemic. This paper demonstrates a positive association between the unemployment rate and the distribution of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. As unemployment rates increase, the dependence on the additional income offered by the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend or Universal Basic Income becomes increasingly evident. In other words, the PFD is designed to distribute the state's resource wealth among its residents and appears to function as a stabilizing influence during economic downturns. It serves as a financial safety net for individuals experiencing job losses, potentially alleviating financial strain on both individuals and families, and mitigating the adverse effects linked to elevated unemployment rates.
Keywords
Alaska, Universal Basic Income, COVID-19, socioeconomic
References
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Business and Policy Studies
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-373-9
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-374-6
- Published Date
- 17 April 2024
- Series
- Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences
- ISSN (Print)
- 2754-1169
- ISSN (Online)
- 2754-1177
- DOI
- 10.54254/2754-1169/75/20241756
- Copyright
- 17 April 2024
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited